Conrad “Duke” Hauser (2012)

Amazon offered up a couple of surprise four-packs back in 2012; one focused on Retaliation and the other on Renegades. The Renegades pack struck my fancy as it included three unique figures along with another version of Duke. I’ll admit that I didn’t pay enough attention to Mr. Hauser until recently, and have found the figure to be an interesting cartoon variant.

Renegades Duke is made up of some different parts from his single carded Renegades release. The swapped arms and legs make for a more accurate representation of the show’s uniform design, with a straight-leg pant and larger kneepads.

The colors are also more reminiscent of the animated series’ palette, with a more muted tone overall. Even the skin is different from the usual Hasbro hue, and I’d even say it has a bit of a ghostly pallor. His vest deco also foregoes any paint wash detail. I’ve long thought that cartoon-based toys should limit washes or drybrush paint details. Nevertheless, the figure taken as a whole more strongly resembles the animated Duke rendered in a realistic sculptural style. Considering the unique art style of the show, there’s a sort of disconnect between the color and sculpt. Of course, if Hasbro had tooled an entire assortment based closely on the Renegades art art style, fans probably would have been upset.

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5 comments

Where did you get that awesome background with Dial Tone from? Anyway, great article. As for the Renegades tv show, I will always hate their unrealistic looking art style. And I really mean that. The only things from Renegades that interests me, are the vehicles. Especially that Cobra truck that the Joes were driving around in the show. And what’s with all of the ugly looking futuristic guns?

I never realized this version was so different than the single pack version. If I were a bigger “Renegades” fan, I’d appreciate more what this guy brings to the table. He definitely has that “animated” look.